CBS News in Chicago recently did a story about Funks Grove Maple Sirup in Shirley, Illinois, and how repeatedly warmer winters are shortening the sap flow of the family farm’s maple trees.
The gist is that climate change definitely is affecting Funks Grove’s annual harvest.
Funks Grove tends to sell out of its maple syrup by summer, but given the small harvest this year, you probably ought to order early.
The Funk family has been adamant for years that climate change is having an impact.
During a 2017 story in Route 66 News, Debbie Funk said warmer winters were shortening and lessening the harvest.
She wrote in an email:
Fortunately we tapped early this year, in January instead of waiting until February as we would normally do. How people can deny climate change as a real problem is beyond me. I just heard that this February was the warmest on record.
During a follow-up phone call, Funk said the only sap harvest that was worse than 2017’s was about 10 years ago, less than half of what was expected. And it was the same conditions — unseasonably warm winter weather.
As for the farm’s spelling of “sirup” instead of “syrup,” Funks Grove uses the former because of a 1920s definition of the words in a Webster’s dictionary. “Syrup” meant adding sugar to juice; “sirup” meant boiling sap for sugar. The “i” indicates a pure product, which is what the Funks desire in their marketing.
The Funks have run its maple-sirup operation commercially since 1891 and annually tapped their trees to make their own sugar since 1824. They know the ebb and flow of their seasons as well as anyone.
(Image at Funks Grove Maple Sirup near Shirley, Illinois, by Storm Crypt via Flickr)